Another Day in the Wasteland
by raldbthar
Summary: This story follows a group of simple wastelanders who just happen to be good at staying alive in the Commonwealth. M: For graphic descriptions because it's Fallout.


Fear was something raiders felt quite often. It was what governed them. The weak were overtaken by the strong, the strong lead by the strongest through force. The fear that Jenn felt, now, was something else altogether.

There she was, lying on some sticky, foul smelling counter top, her limbs pinned down in every direction. She'd watched the four others who had been put into this position the last few hours. The super mutants hated humans and loved making them hurt before they killed and ate them. Jenn had been forced to watch as the other four survivors of her raider crew were strapped down, just as she was, and had the flesh pulled from their bones. It wasn't something the super mutants did quickly, either. They had grabbed handfuls at a time and pulled, reveling in the agonized screams of the raiders as they filled their blood soaked nets with Jenn's former pertners in crime.

Pride had not been an issue at all. As soon as they grabbed her by her filthy blonde hair she began begging for her life. Her eyes were swollen and puffy from crying, her voice hoarse from screaming. She hadn't stopped making a sound until one of the super mutants began walking to her with a jagged, saw like blade fashioned out of the hood of a near by ruined car. Jenn began to hyperventilate and sob louder and louder as the big green monster approached and forced herself to look away as it grabbed hold of her wrist and pressed the blade to her skin.

"Stupid human make too much noise." The mutant said with a laugh. Just as Jenn was sure the mutant was going to begin cutting into her, she heard the horrible, guttural, unnatural sound of one of the mutant hounds warning of an intruder. The raider dared to open her eyes and her small amount of courage was rewarded with the sight of her would-be butcher's head coming apart in enormous, messy chunks. Some of it got into her mouth, which had still been sobbing and she instantly began gagging on the horrid taste.

The other mutants forgot their little snack entirely and rushed out to find their new foe. Gun fire erupted all around, but nothing actually hit near her. Still, Jenn instinctively tightened against her restraints as each volley from the super mutants went out into the darkness. Suddenly a louder sound joined the din. The makeshift pipe rifles of the super mutants had obviously been severely outclassed by whatever the attacker was wielding as it boomed through the air. It all happened in moments but to the young raider it felt like hours. When all had finally quieted she began tugging harder and harder against her restraints, desperate to get loose. Foot steps sloshing through the gore of super mutants and humans stole her attention.

The raider looked up at the killer of the mutants with a mixture of fear and hope. By the size of the silhouette it was definitely human or a non-feral ghoul. Stepping into the light, the possible rescuer revealed himself fully. He could have passed for a Gunner at a distance with the few pieces of combat armor strapped on to some type of dark leather garment. The grey beanie on his head was really the only thing that made her think he wasn't a Gunner, since she'd never seen one of them wearing one.

"Raider?" He asked, gesturing to the armored boots that were mostly reinforced with rebar. When Jenn nodded the man sighed and turned to leave.

"Please, for fuck sake, don't leave me here!" She begged. "I'll do anything!"

The man turned and looked at her for a moment with what looked like actual concern in his eyes. Jenn didn't buy it. People in the wasteland didn't care about each other, but hell, she'd at least gotten him to think about helping her.

"What do you want, caps?" She asked frantically. "We've got a stash across the street, where these muties dragged us out of. I'll take you to it." When he made no response her heart began to hammer in her chest. "Aw come on. What about some jet? We got a bunch of that in a cache near by. No? What about guns and ammo? Fuck, man, you can have me for the night if you'll just cut me loose!"

"How many people have you killed?" The man asked as he approached the counter.

"What, like... caravaners?" She asked, causing her rescuer to frown. "None! Seriously, none! I'm not a shooter. Only man I ever killed was one of my crew when he wouldn't take no for an answer and tried to take me instead."

"A raider who's never murdered anyone, huh?" The man asked in obvious disbelief.

"I swear, mister." Jenn replied desperately. "I'm good with my hands. I can't shoot too good but I fixed up the turrets that our mutie friends here clobbered earlier. And the guns the other guys was using. I fixed those, too. I never actually killed anyone, I swear!"

The man just stared at her, the barrel fire near by giving his eyes an awful shine. Jenn just stared up at him, trying her hardest to look innocent, knowing full well that the dank leather armor and one side of her head completely shaved were dead giveaways that she was anything but. Still her pathetic display finally paid off when the man grabbed the blade that was going to be used to disembowel her and cut the restraints pinning her to the counter. Jenn shakily slid off the counter and almost immediately began vomiting. The man took a step back before reaching into one of his pocket and tossing her a relatively clean rag.

"So here's what's going to happen, now." He began, pointing his gun at her. She now realized why his gun had been so much louder as she looked down the barrel of a bull barrel .44 revolver. "I'm going to let you pick up any gun you think you can wield properly. Then you're going to accompany me and my crew across the wasteland until such a time as we don't need you anymore."

"Yeah, sure, whatever you say, mister." She replied, holding her hands up. "S'not like I got anywhere else to go, anyways."

"Yes, well I just want you to know that if you try to betray us, or if we catch you in another raider gang when I do, eventually decide to let you go off on your own, I'm going to take you down alive. Then I'm going to find the nearest super mutant rabble and I'm gonna hand you over to them so I can right the wrong of saving you. Got that?"

"Y-yeah, totally!" Jenn replied quickly. "No more raiding for me! And no stabbing you guys in the back. Just do what you say, you'll let me live and then I'll go find a job on a farm or something after all this."

"Well, she's a lot smarter than that last pack mule we nabbed." Came a woman's voice behind the man. She stepped into the light, hefting a long .50 caliber hunting rifle with no scope on it. Jenn looked up at her big, fluffy brown coat and weird, floppy hat and was then reminded that it was actually quite cold in Boston this time of year. "And a pack mule who is decent at repairs sounds like a good catch."

"Pack mule?" Jenn asked. "I'll carry whatever you want, but I don't know how fast I'll be able to go."

"Don't worry, sugar, you're not carrying anything big." The woman replied, rolling her eyes before looking the rather scrawny bandit up and down. "Just the junk that we find along the way that one of out nostalgic members can never seem to leave behind."

"R-right..." Jen replied, brushing her hair over to one side. The man lowered his pistol at this point and began walking out of the building, the woman right behind him. Deciding it best not to keep them waiting, Jenn quickly followed the two out. "So what do I call you?"

"We don't use names in this outfit, kid." The man replied and kept walking toward a group of shadows standing in the street. By Jenn's count there were five of them, not including herself. "Folks rarely last long enough for anyone to want to get cozy like that."

"Okay... so nicknames, then?" She asked as she knelt down and picked up a pipe rifle and some ammo for it. When she looked up most of the shadowy figures had begun moving already.

"Ah, don't worry about all that, sugar." The woman behind her said and gave her a nudge on the shoulder to let her know it was time to start walking. "Some of these folks might open up to you if we're all still around next week."

"You planning on dying or something?" Jenn asked nervously.

"Never planned on it. Just happens that way some times. But this little outfit has been around since before Diamond City was a place worth talking about."

"Who are you, Minutemen?"

"Oh please, sugar, we work for a living." The woman said with a laugh as she cradled her rifle. "And we don't have a fancy name for our outfit. We just roam around, killing super mutants, ferals and raiders when we find 'em."

"Right... So you're a nameless group of nameless people that wanders the wasteland killing people like me." Jenn said miserably.

"Well yeah, but half our outfit were raiders at one point or another." The woman said, giving Jenn a friendly nudge. "And if you really want a name to know, these folks call me Church."

"You a priest or something?" Jenn asked, unusually comforted by the fact that one of them shared their name with her. Her question got a loud chuckle from the female sniper.

"I can't say I don't believe in any kinda god or something up there, but I can't say I do, either." Church replied. "No, they call me Church because I was a raider, like you, and I was wounded and bleeding out in a church. Begged for my life, just like you did a second ago."

"Really?"

"Ha, no not really." Church replied, chuckling again. "Like I said, sugar, stay alive for a while and maybe I'll tell you my story."

The raider, sighed as she followed the shadowy gathering, headed for the outskirts of Boston, toward Salem. She'd never thought, in a million years, that she'd be following a bunch of do-gooders, or that she'd be their junk bitch, carrying whatever random trinket another member wanted her to carry. She definitely never thought she'd have begged for her life or cried in front of someone, either, but all of those things were happening to her. Still, Jenn was alive and her flesh was snuggly secured to the bones in her body, just the way she liked it, and at least Church was kind of entertaining. She was sure, one way or another, she'd find a way to lose this group and get lost in the wasteland. Until then, though, she'd do what they said, just like she agreed.


End file.
